Silk Road/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A boy, Tim, and a robot, Moby, are riding camels in a desert. The two are dressed in middle-eastern clothing. Both camels are standing still. TIM: Giddy up. The camel growls. Tim turns to Moby, who is leaning back atop his own camel, relaxing and sipping a lemonade. TIM: He won't go. I've been sitting here for two hours. I'm thirsty, and there's sand in everything I own. He blasts a can of compressed air over his camel's head. The camel turns his head and eats the can. Tim turns to Moby again. TIM: This is the last time I let you plan our vacation. Tim's camel turns its head and spits out a sheet of paper. Tim reads from a salivacovered typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, Can you tell me about the Silk Road? Thanks, Sonny. TIM: Sure! Moby and I are lost somewhere on it right now. Of course, "Silk Road" is kind of a misleading term. It wasn't a single road, but a network of ancient trading routes connecting East Asia to the Mediterranean. A map of Asia displays the network of roads known as the Silk Road. TIM: There was even a maritime Silk Road covering the same area by sea. Lines representing ocean and sea routes appear on the map. TIM: And it wasn't just about silk. Spices, precious metals, art, and pretty much anything else of value were traded on these routes. Over land, the Silk Road covered more than six thousand kilometers and brought together cultures that had never interacted before. Images show a silk scarf, peppers, a gold goblet, and a figurine. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Very old. Some sections of the road date back more than five thousand years. These were mainly shorter trading routes that developed between neighboring tribes. Over time, powerful empires filled the gaps between these unrelated roads. Images show short trade routes on a map of Asia. TIM: In the fourth century BCE, the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great pushed east into Central Asia. A map shows the Middle East. Lines and shading show Alexander the Great moving eastward. TIM: About two hundred years later, China's Han Dynasty expanded its influence westward. Chinese merchants exported silk to the new territories. The map shows Eastern China, with lines illustrating the Han Dynasty spreading westward. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, that's why we call it the Silk Road now. Nobody back then referred to it that way. Anyway, by the first century BCE, the silk routes were stable enough for goods to travel from China all the way to Europe. The map shows trade routes spreading westward from China to Europe. TIM: Around this time, silk made a huge splash in Rome. Fashionable Romans couldn't get enough of the luxurious new material. Meanwhile, all kinds of Western goods- from glass, to gold, to garlic- began arriving in China. An image shows a clothing store in ancient Rome. Women are clamoring for silk gowns. A banner above them reads "Dress Yourself in Silk!" MOBY: Beep. TIM: No. Merchants didn't travel all the way from Rome to China, or vice-versa. That's thousands of kilometers, over some of the harshest mountain and desert terrain on the planet. Images show lines of merchants carrying goods on camelback through mountains and deserts. TIM: On top of these natural dangers, bandits were everywhere, waiting to steal, kidnap, and even worse. A map appears of the Silk Road. Sinister pairs of eyes appear all along the route. TIM: In fact, parts of the Great Wall of China were built to protect Silk Road traders. The image shows Eastern Asia and parts of the Great Wall of China. MOBY: Beep. TIM: To stay safe, they traveled in caravans, groups of traders going in the same direction. Camels were the pack animal of choice because they could withstand extreme heat and cold and go a long time without water. Images show traders carrying goods on camelback. TIM: All along the Silk Road, traders would stop and rest at oases, areas with water and vegetation. An image shows traders resting at a desert oasis, with a pond, palm trees, and bushes. TIM: Many of these stops grew into trading centers and even major cities. Merchants would travel back and forth between cities, loaded with goods each way. Small buildings and tall walls appear. The oasis transforms into a town. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, for instance, you might haul Indian spices from Bactra to Merv. A map shows the two towns on the Silk Road. A trader is shown leading his camel along the route with spices on the camel’s back. TIM: In Merv, you'd sell your spices and buy, say, jewelry from a gold merchant. An image shows two merchants conducting business. They are trading peppers for a gold necklace. TIM: Another trader might take your spices farther west and you'd take the gold back east. This way, goods could move down the Silk Road city-to-city, trader-totrader, across entire continents. Two merchants leave Merv. One goes west with the spices and the other goes east with the gold. TIM: Merchants and other travelers exchanged customs and ideas, too. Greek math and philosophy found their way into Asia. Buddhist monks spread their beliefs north and east from India. And the religion of Islam moved east and west out of the Arabian Peninsula. Images of a Greek philosopher, Buddhist monk, and Islamic flag with a crescent and a star move around a map of Europe and Asia as Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there had to be peace and stability for everything to work properly, so over the centuries a network of empires provided security. Areas of the map are shaded in different colors, indicating the different empires. TIM: The gigantic Mongol Empire was the last to keep the overland route safe. The different empires merge into one enormous area on the map, covering nearly all of middle and southern Asia. TIM: But it began to fall apart around thirteen hundred. That wasn't a huge deal. The sea routes were able to pick up the slack. The empire on the map splits and dwindles. TIM: But starting in the fifteenth century, European explorers began finding direct paths to Asia that were safer and cheaper. These new routes made the Silk Road pretty much obsolete. A map shows Africa, Europe, and Western Asia. Lines appear in the ocean surrounding the area, illustrating trade routes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, yeah. It was much more than just a trade route. The Silk Road began a cultural exchange on a level that had never been seen before. In fact, some historians call it the first example of globalization. An image of a white hand shaking a brown hand covers the map. TIM: Great, our camels ran away. Now we've really had it. Moby and Tim are now standing in the desert. Their camels are no longer there. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks off into the distance and spots something. TIM: A caravan? Coming this way? We're saved! A car with two Middle Eastern men inside and several burlap bags filled with various goods on top pulls up to them. The vehicle's radio is playing Middle Eastern music. TIM: Not exactly what I had in mind, but . . . Tim and Moby get into the vehicle, which then drives off.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts